Use social media

Facebook is a free to use social app.

You can use it to:

• Chat with friends, family and contacts.
• Post images and videos.
• View and react to other people’s posts.
• Create and join groups/communities.
• Keep track of your friends’ birthdays.
• Plan events and meet-ups.
• Buy and sell goods on the virtual ‘marketplace’.

There’s also Facebook Messenger, which is the instant messaging part of Facebook. Here, you can chat, group chat, phone and video call through the platform.

Instagram is a free image sharing platform. People post photos and ‘reels’  - short videos. There’s also a feature called ‘stories’. This lets you share short video clips or images that disappear after 24 hours.

You can buy goods through the shopping feature – look for a shopping bag icon or tag in posts and reels. You can sell here too – you’ll need to set up a Shop which you can use on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll also need your own website, to handle the checkout process.

Twitter was renamed ‘X’ in 2023. It lets you share updates, thoughts and ideas with other X users. You can edit your settings so only certain people can see your posts, like your friends and family. People also use it to share far and wide.

Posts, known as ‘tweets’, are up to 280 characters long. They’re short and to the point. You can also post images and videos and follow people/groups you’re interested in.

X is free to use, plus it has a paid subscription service that has extra features and fewer ads.

TikTok is another free platform. This one is all about creating and sharing short videos – some just a few seconds long. So you can scroll through videos from friends, people you follow, or the wider TikTok community.

Though TikTok started off just showing music videos to sing along to, it now hosts a range of videos for entertainment and learning. You can also use the TikTok Shop in the app, to buy and sell items.

Snapchat is a free photo and video sharing app. People tends to use it with friends or family members. Snapchat videos automatically delete after a set period of time, depending on your settings, though you can save them as ‘Memories’. Snapchat also has ‘stories’ and a chat function that you can use to chat or ‘snap’, one to one or with a group. You can call and video call too.

Although Snapchat is free, there are paid plans with extra features or if you need to store more ‘Memories’.

WhatsApp is a free instant messaging service. You can use it to connect, chat and call other people using their phone number. Unlike the other social apps, this site is just for sending and receiving messages, and having calls/video calls with people. You can share photos and videos and have group chats here, too.

This is mainly a job/career-based social media platform. Professionals, businesses and people looking for jobs all use it. It’s free to use, with extra features you can pay for.

You can:

• Search and apply for jobs.
• Network with others.
• Share posts and events.
• Chat with your network.
• Make video calls.

Want to redecorate your home, change your hairstyle or just looking for recipe ideas? Pinterest is an image sharing app that you can use as a visual search tool and online ‘scrapbook’. People share images and ideas on many topics. Use the search bar to find posts that match your interests. Then save or ‘pin’ them to a virtual ideas board. You can have multiple boards and they can be private or public.